R. Kowalsky Recalls a Historic Meeting Between The Rebbe and The Rav

Rabbi Sholem B. Kowalsky, who recently passed away, recalls a historic meeting between The Rebbe and The Rav in an interview filmed last spring in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Sholem B. Kowalsky, who recently passed away in Jerusalem, was recently featured in “Living Torah” (Disc 30 program 118) recalling the historic meeting between the Rebbe and the Rav which he arranged.

Born in prewar Poland, he studied at the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Warsaw and later at Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. In 1938 he emigrated to the United States where he continued his studies.

Among his many activities, Rabbi Kowalsky was the long time spiritual leader of Young Israel of Hillcrest, former vice president of Agudas Harobonim of America, active in the Rabbinical Council of America and was on the executive board of the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel.

As a prominent American Rabbi in the early days following the war, Rabbi Kowalsky was close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, of righteous memory and The Rav, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, Rosh Yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

In an interview filmed last spring as part of Jewish Educational Media’s “My Encounter with the Rebbe” project, Rabbi Kowalsky describes a meeting between the Rebbe and the Rav which he helped facilitate. The historic meeting took place in the fall of 1964 shortly after the passing of the Rebbe’s mother, Rebitzen Chana, in Brooklyn, NY.

“My Encounter with the Rebbe” is an oral history project established by Jewish Educational Media (JEM) to record the life-story of the Lubavitcher Rebbe through videotaped, first-person testimony.

JEM is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1980 for the purpose of broadcasting, live via satellite, the public addresses of the Rebbe and has since evolved into a broadcast-quality production house with a full-time staff of 15, including researchers, producers and video editors. JEM’s primary goal is to preserve, restore and make its priceless archival collections accessible to diverse audiences around the world.